Main menu

Assistive and educational technology tools and resources to support learning for students with disabilities and their classmates.

Using a computer-adapted, conceptually based history text to increase comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with disabilities

The purpose of this study was to improve the comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with disabilities in social studies using a conceptually framed, computer-adapted history text. Participants were 11th and 12th grade students identified with learning disabilities in reading and writing from two intact, self-contained social studies classes.During the three weeks of the study, students in the experimental group received content regarding the Industrial Revolution via a conceptually framed, computer-adapted text, while students in the control group were taught the same content using the district adopted textbook. Two curriculum-based measures were used to measure comprehension, and an extended-response essay was used to measure problem-solving performance. Analyses showed no statistical difference between the groups for comprehension. However, students in the experimental group statistically outperformed students in the control group on the extended-response essay. Results are discussed in terms of effect size and group sampling size. Implications from these findings indicate that computer-adaptive technology is an effective learning supplement for students with a disability in content classrooms.

Author:

Twyman T., & Tindal G.

Year:

2006

Source:

Journal of Special Education Technology, 21(2), 5-16.

Type:

Related Research

Content Area:

reading

writing

Grade Level:

secondary

IDEA Disability Category:

autism

emotional disturbance

major-other health impairment

specific learning disability

speech or language impairment

Instructional Support:

multiple formats of text and notation

opportunities to learn concepts

The TechMatrix is funded through a grant by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Award #H327Z060003.